1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and system for recovering water from fruit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Over the years, fruit juice consumption has dramatically increased in response to increased consumer health consciousness. In addition, bottled water sales have increased as consumers question the quality of local drinking water. Consumers typically purchase bottled water because it is advertised as being purer and containing less contaminants than local drinking water.
Conventionally extracted fruit juice is subjected to a concentration process to preserve the juice for year round consumption. Concentrates of fruit juices and other liquid foods are conventionally prepared by evaporative techniques such as boiling the starting liquid to vaporize water therefrom. In the concentration process, it is customary to discard the water removed from the concentrate.
The generalized procedure for producing a concentrated consumer product involves: extracting the juice from the fruit, typically the juice by removing water to produce a concentrated serum, discarding the removed water into the ground or in a stream and packing the concentrated serum for sale to consumers.
Various improvements have been made to produce a concentrated serum having improved flavor and appearance. U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,671 describes an apparatus and method involving both evaporative and freeze concentration procedures for retaining a substantial proportion of volatile components of the natural juice in the concentration product. In a first stage, a liquid mixture feed stream is cooled by indirect heat exchange to form a slurry of ice and liquid. The slurry is fed to a wash column to separate ice from the liquid. Thereafter, the ice is melted and discarded from the system. In a second stage, the liquid from the wash column enters an evaporator for removing additional water. Water removed from the evaporator is discarded.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,865 describes preparation of natural organic juice concentrate from natural orange juice. The orange juice concentrate is prepared by separating the natural orange juice into a pulp portion and a serum portion. Water is removed from the serum portion. The pulp portion and serum portion are combined to form the orange juice concentrate.
It is known that conventional organic flavor and aroma compounds, known as essence, are removed with water during the evaporation phase. Several references describe recovering the essence and returning the essence to the concentrate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,085 describes producing citrus flavored essence by obtaining a citrus aqueous essence containing organic compounds, passing the essence through a solid absorbent so that part of the organic compounds exit the absorbent in a first effluent. At least a part of the first effluent is recycled through the solid absorbent to recover the remaining organic compounds in a second effluent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,149 describes an apparatus for clarifying a liquid such as water. Flotation equipment is used for separating particles from the liquid. The floating particles can be collected at the surface of the flotation equipment.
Of possible general relevance to this application are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,483,634, 3,862,014 and 3,634,138 related to products recovered from natural juices.
A process for recovering water from fruit is not found in the prior art. It is desirable to provide a process for providing pure water which can be distributed to the consumer. It has unexpectedly been found that water extracted from fruit has purity characteristics which are superior to typical bottled water.